Hey! That was funny! Like, really funny! Lots of inside jokes for Felicia’s fans, too ("Is this your first time doing an internet video, Miss Day?") A lot of times videos like this are just painful, but this one is actually really good. Felicia is great, and the Sean Astin stuff cracked me up.

And I think someone’s been reading my book… OK, probably not. But the way she talked about all the astronomy was very natural and smooth, so I just know deep in her heart Felicia’s harboring a strong and undeniable love for astronomer. I mean astronomy. Yes! Astronomy! Of course that’s what I meant!

This was wonderful! Is it a satire on the current trends at Naked Science? I keep seeing sensationalistic elements on that series and it really stuns me every time. The one that leaps to mind talks about the sun growing larger in billions of years and eventually eating up the planets one by one and while they don’t actually say that humans will be on the planet and suffer this fate, they suggest it by describing what it will look like from earth which gives a very dishonest impression.

It’s really maddening to see a series that seems dedicated to truth, disseminate ANY misinterpretation of the facts at all.

I have to respectfully disagree. This was quite funny. The combination of parody of sensationalism and the inside Felicia Day jokes makes this a total WIN in my book.

I do have to disclose that I actually kind of enjoy many of the videos that Phil describes as “painful to watch” (I enjoy eating cheese as well). But I think that this video rises above the usual fromage*. This is actually the kind of video I’ve come to expect from Sean Astin, but this is the best one yet. A large portion of the videos from the YouTube channel that posted this video are from either Sean Astin or Robert Hurt. Dr. Hurt makes straight-up educational videos (which are quite good IMHO) and Dr. Astin tends to go for the quirky, funny presentation. This is his best one to date (getting a geek goddess/web celebrity to participate sure helped).

*For those of you who are Paul & Storm fans, might I recommend their FROMAGE t-shirt. It’s a simple black t-shirt with fromage written in French, Semaphore, and ASL on the front. I know it seems silly, but it’s a great conversation starter.

My favorite line is “Is this your first internet video?” and Felicia slowly shakes her head… Very nice, especially since I use Spitzer and have lots of friends who work on the instruments. A little goofy, yes, but it’s for a good cause so I don’t mind.

Just one minor technical nit of sorts. Something that the wonderful Felicia could’ve mentioned but didn’t :

Assuming I recall correctly for the BA’s book, by the time Andromeda and our Milky Way collide, our Sun will already be a red giant star won’t it?
And when our Sun balloons out into a red giant won’t that pretty much be curtains for Earth anyhow? At best it’ll be a molten lava ball with a Venus like atmosphere being stripped away by the denser faster red giant solar winds. At worst Earth’ll spiral into the tidal bulge it’ll raise on our Sun and be utterly and completely destroyed.

Then again, isn’t that five billion years away not three? Although I think I did hear /read that the Earth will only be habitable for another billion or so years regardless with even the aging main-sequence / pre-sub dwarf / or sub-dwarf Sun getting considerably hotter and brighter as it runs through more of its Hydrogen fuel. Right?

Upshot is, the collison with M 31 and the formation of “Milkomeda” will be the least of our worries then. 😉

PS. What happens to the satellite galaxies of each of the main spirals here – assuming there’re still around? Will the Magellanic Clouds, M32 & M110 play any role in this celestial drama or will they have been gobbled up by then or will they just orbit as satellites of the newly merged ellipitical giant?

The last time I did the research, Andromeda was 1 – 2 billion years away. I don’;t know where they got the 3 billion figure, but their research is probably more up to date than mine. The Sun won’t be a red giant for several billion years past that time, though it will already have heated up to the point where life on Earth will be difficult if not impossible (think boiling oceans).

Phil: You think it was *your* book she read to get her astronomy? No. I think it was *my* book.

The 3 billion year figure for the Andromeda/Milky Way merger is based on one possible set of the transverse velocities. The radial velocities show Andromeda moving toward us but we don’t know the transverse velocity part of its motion to distinguish between two galaxies orbiting each other in elliptical orbits from those on a collision course.

John Dubinski created some of the simulations used in the Spitzer/Felicia Day video and he gives the 3 billion year figure on his page about the Andromeda/Milky Way merger at http://www.galaxydynamics.org/tflops.html
That page includes a simulation of what the merger will look like from the Earth’s vantage point. Cool spacey music too. (Also see his article in the October 2006 Sky + Tel)

Dr. Phil, I have seen a credible argument that radiative frequency pollution from vaccine production has partially prevented the galaxy from naturally correcting its course, contributing to the collision problem the so-called experts are pretending to address. Apparently, this was allowed because it would cause solar system warming which could be passed off on carbon dioxide, and also because of a mistaken belief that the fine tuning of the galaxy was not intelligently designed but evolved, and therefore it would not be a problem because of natural selection. Once again, we see the Butterfly Effect of mankind’s tampering with the system God or whatever higher power you accept has created. It might seem like something out of a fantastic novel, but apparently it’s all true. Until our paradigm shifts, we’re essentially “flying blind” in the belief that Mother Nature does not know best, or that scientists know more than the contents of their labs. Keep in mind that what you, an astronomer, see of the great, wonderful universe is literally a reflection and often a computer comes between you and what you are “seeing.”